Donald Trump just threw a match on this tinder box of a nation when he decided to pardon former Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. This guy is a racist who was convicted in court of contempt for refusing to follow an order to stop racially profiling and detaining people. Arpaio terrorized that county for years with impunity and without consequence, and now it seems that he will be able to carry on being awful.

Now, there is even more nefarious news out there regarding this. It seems that Trump tried to get Jeff Sessions’ Department of Justice to let Arpaio off the hook by dropping the case against him altogether. It seems that Sessions told Trump that such an action would not be the appropriate thing to do. Having no other choice, Trump waited until Arpaio was convicted, and THEN decided to wait for the perfect time to issue a pardon. One White House official says of Trump’s thinking on the Arpaio matter:

“We knew the president wanted to do this for some time now and had worked to prepare for whenever the moment may come.”

Of course, we mustn’t forget that Arpaio and Trump have been political partners in crime ever since they started the birtherism nonsense, in which they promoted the racist lie that President Obama was not born in the United States. They both doggedly tried to prove that the nation’s first Black President was not a legitimate Commander-in-Chief – all because he’s Black.

In short, they are two racist peas in a pod, so of course Trump wasn’t going to let his man go to jail, even though if there was ever someone who deserves to rot in jail, it’s this racist, abusive former Sheriff.

One good thing came out of this, though: It showed that when Trump is willing to do something truly egregious, the Department of Justice has maintained at least a little independence and is willing to push back. However, in this instance, said pushback had no real effect.

Come on, Congress, Mueller, whomever – please get rid of this lawless president while we still have a nation left.

Author: Shannon BarberShannon Barber is a self- described queer feminist and activist for racial equality, LGBT rights, women’s rights, and secular rights in America. She is a lifelong lover of words, though her educational background is in computer science. She currently writes for 2 liberal websites, and keeps her own humor blog for lesbians. She hopes to change the world, one mind at a time.